THE TOP OF A TREE--With new developments in urban farming and hydroponics accompanying the constant innovation in literary form, the world seems to be far outstripping academia’s turtle pace. But if there were any institution which could weather the storm, Columbia, with its interdisciplinary approach to learning, is suited to do just that.

After first testing the waters of mixing literature and ecology in theoretical schools such as Ecocriticism and Ecofeminism, the two disciplines of agriculture and literary criticism are finally joining together in glorious matrimony through a course on Avant-Gardening, a revolutionary new method of organizing plants.

Françoise d'Eaubonne, leading ecofeminist, was overjoyed to hear about the new course, stating that this development was “a big step for finally removing the Earth-mother from the dominating and well-callused hands of paternalistic agro-capitalism. Finally art and nature are joined together, and all the better through radically new forms of gardening. Have you ever seen plants hang upside down like that?!”

Students too are excited about this new offering. June Lionel, CC’20, said, “This is the course I’ve been waiting for. I’ve always been torn between my love of Gertrude Stein and weirdly shaped plants. But now I don’t have to be.”

“Exposing Westchester’s kids to this kind of disease is nothing short of morally repugnant,” said local activist group FreeEdu. “If you want to do justice to teaching America’s colonial past, you should be giving them smallpox instead.”